Daughter of the Tallest
by ZoologyKaM
Summary: It's no longer a battle of Irkens vs. the Universe. The fight comes to the home planet when a civil war breaks out, Tallers vs Defects, and a 3 year old smeet, who's existence was ruined by Zim and his friends, is leading the front. Jenni and Larkz, Zim's twin children, are seeing Irk for the first time, and may be the planet's only hope.
1. Pre-Departure

**_A/N: _**_And it's another story from me!_

_Sequel to __**'Return to Irk'**__ and __**'Idiots Guide to Babysitting'**__ this story revolves around Zim's half irken half human twin smeetbabies, Jenni and Larkz, who are now nearing their 16th Earth-birthday and taking their first visit to their father's home planet. But even though Zim left Skoodge in charge as Co-Tallest, things are not going well for Irk._

_It's no longer a battle of Irkens vs. the Universe. The fight comes to the home planet when a civil war breaks out, Tallers vs Defects, and a 3 year old smeet, who's existence was ruined by Zim and his friends, is leading the front. Jenni and Larkz, Zim's twin children, are seeing Irk for the first time, and may be the planet's only hope._

_I give you ... Daughter of the Tallest_

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**Chapter 1 – Pre-departure**

Jenni relished in the water rushing over pale peach skin. The soothing warmth was a wonderful change from the cold dry air of winter. Her hands ran across her body, helping the soap on its way to the drain. She turned her back to the spray so it fell down onto the top of her head and a mist flew up as the droplets scattered in all directions. It was the first morning of winter break, and no school meant she could enjoy her shower the way every teenager enjoys, but she wasn't a normal teenager.

Squirting some soap into her hand, Jenni reached up and gently massaged her antennae between her thumb and the two fingers of each hand. The sound receptors were sensitive to touch and the soft pressure on them made her whole body relax. She could have spent hours in that steam filled room, but a frantic pounding on the door roused her from her leisure. Her round solid blue eyes glared in the direction of the one that dared bother her during the first long shower she'd had in weeks.

"Jen! Are you okay!? You've been in there for almost an hour!? … Jen?!" the nob jiggled and the door rattled.

"Oh my blorch, Larkz! Can't I ever take a shower in peace!?" she yelled at the door. The attempts to get into the room ceased. Her brother's next comment was so quiet that she couldn't hear it over the rushing water. "WHAT?"

"Why do you even like that acid anyway!"

"Umm…Fuck off?" After a minute of silence, Jenni made the safe assumption that Larkz had gotten pissed off and had stormed away from the door as he did every time. If showers hadn't killed her after 16 years then they weren't suddenly going to start causing her to dissolve. A heavy annoyed sigh was her response to the next person to knock on the door.

"Jenni you're scaring your brother." It was her mom this time.

"He'll get over it."

"Maybe so but I need to do laundry today so leave some hot water behind okay?"

Jenni sighed, turned off the water and stepped around the curtain. She stood dripping on the tile floor for a moment before she reached for her towel; a big white fluffy one that she would never mistake for anyone else's; mostly because it was the only large towel in the room. The bathroom was shared between Jenni and her twin brother Larkz, but since his skin condition prevented him from showering he rarely used it. He and their father mostly used the designated waste disposal room in the lower floors of the basement lab. Jenni wrapped herself with the towel, carefully drying the outer case of that hunk of hardware on her back that Irkens can't live without, and then went back to her own room to get dressed. Today was the beginning of a big day.

The doorbell rang as she was walking down the stairs from the third floor of the house, the basement being the first (according to her dad). Kam, Jenni's mother, opened the door. "Oh Dib, aren't you early? I thought you guys weren't leaving until later tonight?"

"We're not, I just wanted to come over and give Zim a hand with the safety checks on the cruiser." Dib, Jenni and Larkz uncle came in carrying a couple suitcases that looked full to bursting. He was followed shortly by his son Waer Vos, Wes as Jenni called him, who nearly tripped on his baggy pants going through the door.

"Well Zim's in the basement doing some maintenance on the house before leaving, I'll go grab him for you." Kam stepped into the elevator to go to one of the many floors of the house, leaving Dib and Wes standing in the doorway both holding heavy boxes of metal scraps.

"Achoooo" Wes sneezed and took a step backwards, stepping on the hem of his pants once again. He fell to the ground with a crash, then grumbled a few choice Vortian swears when he stood back up. The normally greyish tone of his face was turning a vibrant shade of red around the cheeks and ears.

"Hey Uncle Dib. Hey Wes." Jenni grabbed the box from Wes and nodded towards the stairs, "if you guys are staying all day, you might as well use my room to change." Wes smiled gratefully and hurried up the stairs, tripping twice more on his way.

"Hey there Jen, and how are you today? Excited to get going?"

"Mhm."

"To tell ya the truth," her uncle said, leaning in close, "I am too!" He tilted back with a huge grin crossing his face. His shoulders hunched and shook with the effort of suppressing a delighted squeal. Uncle Dib always was a bit excitable when it came to aliens and other paranormal studies, much to his son's embarrassment.

The elevator came up, pushing the dusty pink couch out of the way, and Larkz stepped out. He looked over at his sister and uncle with his human-like pink eyes, his pupils shrunk rapidly from coming from the artificial lights of the lab up to the sunny upper floors. "Where's Wes?" his own antennae inclined with his question. His green skin contrasted greatly from Dib's, Jenni's, their mom's and every other human's on the planet, so he tended to not spend too much time around others without Wes nearby, or Jenni if nothing else.

"In my room changing."

Larkz nodded and headed up the stairs. By the time he and Wes came down the stairs, everyone else was settled at the kitchen table having the traditional waffle breakfast, cooked by the family's crazy little robot GIR, who filled up two new plates as the boys made their way over.

"FREEDOM!" Wes cheered as he stretched out his strangely jointed legs under the table. His thick jeans had been abandoned for a comfortable pair of basketball shorts. Not that Wes could ever play sports. Even during the summer he was forced to wear pants so that no one would notice the alien bend to his legs. "Sweet freedom!" his father laughed and ruffled up the boy's black hair.

"So what's the plan?"

Jenni and Larkz's father looked up from his plate with a waffle hanging halfway from his mouth. Finding that all eyes were on him, Zim quickly bit off the chunk and let the rest drop to the table, missing his plate by several inches.

"We," he said pointing at Dib, "will go over final safety checks while the kids finish packing everything into the cruiser. From there, Larkz and I will do a quick flight around the planet then if all goes well, we'll be passing Jupiter around dinner." Zim wiped some sticky syrup onto the table cloth before reaching into his pocket and tossing Dib a small Irken disc. "You can brush up on your Irken while you're at it."

"I don't need to **brush** up on my Irken. Kark is always switching languages on me, so I get plenty of practice."

"So when is Kark joining us anyway?" Kam interupted.

"She'll be coming around noon. She was up late last night working with a French architect."

Kark, Wes' mom was an alien, like Jenni and Larkz's father, though they were different species. Kark was from a planet called Vort, which they would be stopping at on the way to Irk. It was her, whom Wes had inherited his grey skin and annoying bone structure from. She was obsessed with languages and over the past 16 years had spent her time learning the more than 6,000 languages and dialects across the planet.

Zim stuck his snake-like tongue out in annoyance. "Kark doesn't even know Irken well enough herself. She…"

Zim was interrupted when Larkz let out a belch loud enough to silence the room. Most of the group started laughing, Wes and Jenni responded with burps of their own; Kam looked stern, Dib tried to look stern but was failing, and Zim just looked revolted. "I hope you all aren't planning to act like disgusting hyoomans while we're on Irk." Zim asked; he leaned back in his chair giving the teens a cold analytical stare.

Dib punched his arm a little less than lightly, "Twenty five years on this planet and you're still calling us disgusting."

Zim's antennae flicked forward and gave a smug smile, "Of course, Dib-stink. What else would I think of the species that you came from?" They laughed at the references to their old rivalry. So much had changed since those days. And especially during those few years after Zim had met Kam, when he managed to stop a civil war on Irk and become leader of the planet. He had brought an end to an oppressive empire and led the universe toward the path to peace.

_And to think he gave that all up to come raise us on earth._ Jenni sighed, wishing it would be time to leave sooner. Not that family breakfast wasn't enjoyable, but she was anxious to see a being other than her dad and brother who had antennae.

"Hello!? Anyone home!?"

"In the kitchen Kark!" Zim yelled from his seat, while Dib jumped up to greet his wife.

Dib had to basically squat in order to give her a kiss, considering the Vortian didn't even reach the height of his waist. "Thought you weren't coming until later?" Kark shrugged and went straight for the waffles, shedding her floor-length skirt along the way; She stretched her bent legs much the same way her son had when he had sat down. Dib casually pressed the button on the back of the chair, that Zim had specially made for any aliens that came to visit and the chair raised up a foot. Kark glared at him; she never liked being reminded that everything on the planet was bigger than her. Vortians may not have a height complex like Irkens but they didn't like being told they Couldn't possibly do something. She ended up taking it out on her son pointing out that he was also short by human standards. Dib was working to intervene before another argument broke out from the prideful Vortians.

Larkz stuck his fork on the stack of waffles as Gir walked by, offering more to everyone. "So who's all coming with?" He took a bite then spit it out on his plate. "Oh Grose! Dad, Gir's putting weird stuff in the mix again," he whined, pushing his plate away. Everyone else sniffed their waffles and did the same. Zim jumped up and grabbed Gir away from the waffle mix just as the little robot was about to drop a live chicken on the skillet.

"No! Gir Stop that!" Gir wiggled in Zim's arms, his legs still running in the air towards the waffle maker.

Jenni came over and took GIR from her father, and set the robot down. "No adding ingrediants Gir, Only waffle mix," she scolded.

"But! My waffles!"

"No Gir."

Gir looked sadly around at everyone in the room. Jenni reinforced the command. Gir's eyes flicked red for a second but switched back to blue; he giggled then picked up the chicken to take it back to the lab. Her mother burst out laughing.

"As always, Jenni is the only one that Gir really listens to."

Zim's eye twitched as if he might say something. It took him a minute of standing frozen like that before he shrugged and started collecting the plates from the table. He put on a thicker pair of pink gloves over top of his usual black ones and worked on washing the dishes. Kam was still laughing at how he avoided the comment but went to help him when some water splashed on his exposed arm.

"Smeets go up and start packing. Make sure you've got everything you need for the trip there. Even with the upgrades, it will still take 5 days to reach Irk."

Larkz huffed in annoyance, "it's kids, not smeets, and we're not even kids anymore Dad. We're 16."

"You're not smeets anymore once you've gotten your assignments, which since they don't do that on this planet you'll always be smeets. HA!"

Larkz and Jenni exchanged a glance but didn't argue. There was never a point in arguing with their Dad. He was often too clueless to see the truth even if you showed him the evidence. In the end they gave up and headed upstairs, with Wes right behind them.

XXX

"So when is Zim coming back?" the former-Almighty-Tallest Purple leaned back in his chair. He stared casually up at the ceiling but his antennae twitched occasionally thinking of that annoyance's return.

"They should be leaving that backwater planet in the next few hours. After that it will be a day and a half till he gets here."

"Oh good. I can't wait to see those twins again. They were so cute. Weren't they Red?"

Red ignored his counterpart's question and stared out the window at the city. "Do you think Tallest Skoodge even told them yet?"

Purple tipped his chair back onto two legs, pushing off against the conference table. "I doubt it. That shorty wouldn't want to disappoint Zim."

"He's not really that short anymore…"

"Well I'm still taller so I don't care."

"and he's your Leader."

"You know, he's still not resting? I saw him pacing the halls just last night."

Red sighed when Purple dodged acknowledging Skoodge as Almighty Tallest yet again. "I noticed. Well we'll be able to talk to Zim when he gets back. He's an idiot but he's still more likely to listen to us."

"Ha! Yeah, he's listening to us now even better than before."

"Regardless," Red said, firmly cutting off Purple's laughter, "he's got one blorch of a mess to clean up when he gets back."


	2. Unknown Problems

_**A/N: **__Thank you to InvaderZim2020 for giving me the confidence boost I needed to break my writer's block! This chapter is dedicated to you! (since I have a feeling you're the only one that's going to read it anyway!)_

_Enjoy!_

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**Chapter 2 – Unknown Problems **

"There it is. Home sweet home!" Kark's face was glowing as she stared down at the bright reflective atmosphere of planet Vort. Wes had not seen his mom this happy for a long time. She was practically bouncing with excitement. His father was no better; he was right there bouncing around at the window with her.

"Oh Man! This is so cool! I really didn't get a good enough look at it the last time we passed by 16 years ago!" Dib squealed with excitement. He held hands with his wife and they stared deeply into each other's eyes, Kark telling him all the places she wanted to show him. Wes shuddered and walked to the other window where Larkz and Jenni were.

"Were there any barf bags packed in this ship?" Wes asked.

Jenni laughed and Larkz gave him a skeptical look. "You're not getting motion sickness are you?"

"Nope," Wes said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder towards his parents who were now one step from making out, "but they're love sick, and that makes me sick." Larkz and Jenni laughed, punched him on the arms and told him to 'hang in there'. Wes flopped down on the couch between them, and wrapped his arms around their shoulders pulling them into an awkward 3 way hug. "Jeeze I'm gonna miss you guys!"

Jenni poked Wes in the side, where he was always most ticklish, causing him to jump and release her. "We'll only be staying for a month," she laughed.

"Yeah," Larkz said, "On Irk for a month then we're coming back to pick you guys up. I'm sure you'll have loads of fun on your **family** vacation." He said with a clear mocking tone; they both knew how Wes' parents were when they were seeing something new or showing something they love to someone else. Poor Wes was going to have a rough month.

"Alright we got clearance," Zim called back from the control room, "we're headed into the atmosphere now so everyone buckle up. Dib come get GIR off my head!" Of course since Dib hadn't heard, Jenni went to grab the robot while Wes went to separate his parents.

Jenni flopped down in the co-pilot's chair holding the SIR unit in her arms like a teddy bear.

"I thought I told Dib to come get him…" her dad grumbled. This was the first time she had ever seen him wearing his military uniform, or what he said was his uniform. Everything from the chest plate, to the pink skirt-like tunic and the metal hover disk attached to it, made him look so official. It was still hard for her to believe that her crazy dad was the ruler of a planet.

"Ehh… You know Mr. and Mrs. Membrane. They were a little preoccupied." She laughed as her dad shuddered. "So… does everyone on Vort look like Wes and his mom?"

Her father coked an antenna, giving a half smile, "We're landing in less than a minute, you know?" Even as he said this, clouds were rushing past the windshield; looking out, Jenni could see for miles.

"I know… just wondering what other kinds of aliens are out there." Her dad laughed.

The docking procedures went even easier than on Earth. They touched down on a wide landing strip. On one side was a beautiful grassy field, covered with flowers of all sorts of colors; on the other side was a city even larger than Chicago, the only really large city the twins had ever seen. Jenni was determined to be the first one off the ship. So was her brother. The entrance hatch hadn't even fully opened before they were off and gazing around. A crew of Vort mechanics came to service their ship, and as the rest of them walked (Zim floated) off the ship, there was a familiar face waiting for them.

Kark ran forward, upon seeing him, offered a fast salute for her former captain and closest friend before slamming into him with a hug. "Lard Nar! It's so good to see you!" Even though she was taller than him, anyone could tell from looking that she thought of him as a father.

"Same to you Kark, you should have come back to visit some time sooner than this… and who is that young lad?"

Wes' mother looked back just in time to see her son duck behind the tallest person in the group; though since being used as a hiding place was annoying, Zim shoved the poor boy out into view. Wes stood nervously looking around. They all looked like her. EVERYONE! The legs… the horns… the beady eyes… For the first time ever, he felt incredibly self-conscious about his looks for the only human trait he had, his hair.

"Captain, good to see you, you look well." Dib said, stepping in.

"Same to you my friend; although I can't say I'm as well as you think."

"Something wrong?" Zim floated forward. His added height cast a long shadow under the setting Vort star, but that wasn't what made Lard Nar's expression look grim.

"We should discuss it inside. For now how about those introductions?"

Jenni could see that her father didn't want to wait but he forced himself to smile and turned to the three teenagers. "This one is Wes, Kark's and Dib's son," Wes' father actually looked embarrassed and nervous, afraid what Lard Nar might say. He was relieved when the Vortian gave him a friendly punch on the leg and congratulated him for 'taming the beast.' Kark flushed red and proceeded to pound on Lard Nar's side for embarrassing her. While she stood off pouting, and Dib tried to talk her down, Zim introduced his own kids. "And of course you already know my two, Jenni," Jenni waved, "and Larkz," Larkz nodded with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Ah yes. The Lar in his name was taken from mine if I remember correctly."

Zim laughed, "that's right." He waved his son over, "Larkz this is Lard Nar. He's a Vort Ambassador to planet Irk and was once the leader of a resistance against the Irken empire. He helped me back when I first took over Irk. It's thanks to him that you two are both alive today." Lard Nar laughed at the flattery that he knew Zim didn't entirely mean.

Larkz' eyes grew wide, "Seriously? Cool. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

Larkz looked up at his father while Jenni and Wes came up behind him to shake hands with the Vortian. "So Lar is from Lard Nar and K is from Kark… Who's the Z from?"

"We'll meet him when we get to Irk. He's named Zak. He's a smeet on Irk," his father said. Lard Nar jumped and silently tried to stop Zim but failed, "he helped us overthrow the previous Tallests. He's friendly and a loyal Irken."

"Actually…" Lard Nar said. Zim looked down at the Vortian. Lard Nar sighed, "dinner should be ready, and we have much to discuss. Shall we?" he started to lead them to a nearby building

Kark recognized that look on her commander's face; there was something he wasn't telling them. "Lard Nar… What happened to Zak?" but Lard Nar waved off any questions saying that ten more minutes wouldn't change anything. They all followed him inside a spectacular hotel, where they were told would be their home for the night.

XXX

"HOW ON IRK COULD THERE BE A CIVIL WAR HAPPENING IF I NEVER HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT IT!?"

The room became deathly silent, after Zim's outburst. He and Lard Nar had moved off to the end of the table to discuss a few things, so none of them had heard the conversation but Jenni and Larkz could clearly see that their father was one outburst away from a full blow panic attack. Jenni grabbed GIR by the antenna as it ran by trying to go and see if it could join its master in a yelling contest.

"Your fellow Tallest Skoodge refused to allow anyone to tell you! It's the truth!" Lard Nar was forced to raise his voice as well.

"YOU'RE LYING! Something like that couldn't happen without Zim's knowledge!"

"Crap…" Larkz leaned in to his sister, "Dad slipped into 3rd person…"

Jenni nodded, "I noticed… Give it a minute… see what happens."

"Mom's not here…"

"Mr. Membrane will probably try to talk him down."

"Mr. Membrane just makes things worse when Dad's like that…"

"Then **I'll do it** you chicken."

The twins had learned, from a very young age, that not everything was right with their dad. Whenever something would upset him, he would slip into referring to himself in the third person, and would always sound haughty and full of himself, not how he normally was. Then, on their 5th birthday, when there was an explosion in Membrane Labs, he nearly killed Dib and 5 other people trying to find their mom in the wreckage. After that there were times where he didn't seem to remember having a family and talked about destroying all life on earth; it was times like that when he was at his most dangerous, and only their mother had ever been able to talk him out of it. When they asked what was wrong, she would only ever tell them that not long before they were born, there was an accident with his PAK, which affected his memory. She wouldn't tell them more than that.

"Zim. Take a deep breath and sit down."

"Stay Out Of This DIB-STINK!"

"DAD!" Jenni jumped up and stood between her dad and Mr. Membrane. "What's wrong? Can Larkz' and I help?"

Zim blinked as he stared at her, slowly coming back to his senses, he sunk down into his chair with a sigh. A collective breath of relief passed through the room. Dib took a seat next to him. "What exactly is going on Lard Nar?"

Lard Nar sighed, his blue-grey skin suddenly looking much more pale and tired. "Planet Irk has cut off all contact with other planets. All soldiers, medics, re-construction crews, and all individuals off planet were called to return by order of the Tallest. I received word from a reliable source that Irk is on the brink of a civil war; a war against the Irken hierarchy of height and perfection. It is…" he hesitated, "it is supposedly being headed by a smeet that was recently labeled as 'defective'."

Everyone had come to sit at the end of the table now. They were all listening intently, though the teenagers didn't really understand the finer points of Irken politics, they knew civil wars were bad.

"It's Zak…" Zim said. "He's blaming us for messing up his pod release, and intelligence download."

"What!?" Dib's jaw was practically on the floor. "How could he think that? We just…"

"You just altered the settings to release him and then prevented a proper neural intelligence transfer…" Zim was on his feet again, "You prevented him from being programed and you hatched him early so his body wasn't fully developed!" he yelled.

Dib yelled right back, "How the Hell was I supposed to know that?! It was kind of a desperate situation!" Jenni watched her father's antennae drop, and realized hers were also flat to her head. She was scared, the whirring in her PAK told her so.

Zim sighed, "What on Irk was Skoodge thinking…" he muttered to himself. "Planet Irk just narrowly escaped one civil war… now only a few years later he's let another one creep up on me…" he rested his face in his hands. He took a deep calming breath, exhaled, then stood up. "Thanks for the food. I need to leave for Irk now." Lard Nar looked about to argue but waved off a messenger to ready the ship instead. Zim floated to the door, but stopped and turned back, raising a brow at the line following him. "What do all of you think you're doing?"

"Coming with?" Larkz said innocently.

"Ooohh no you're not. You're all staying here where it's safe."

"I completely agree." Dib said walking up and crossing his arms in a stern parental way.

"You're not coming either."

"Aww…"

"But Dad…"

"No human backsides, Jenni. I'm going alone and that's final."

"Then why not leave in the morning?" Lard Nar was back at the table standing on his chair, looking almost tall. "Come now Zim, leaving your children on a strange planet so suddenly? I thought Earth had taught you what it meant to be a parent."

Zim made a noise of exasperation. "Fine. One night. Then I'm leaving in the morning," and that was the end of the discussion. When Dib tried to argue more Zim threatened him with a laser and the topic quickly died.

XXX

Everything was packed and the smaller, faster, Vort vessel was ready to go. Zim double checked all his readings of the flight controls. "I stay the night for them and those kids don't even bother to say goodbye."

Dib laughed. "Soon as the sun was up, those three ran off to explore the city. Can you blame them though?"

"No I suppose not. …Keep an eye on them for me will you?"

Dib smiled, "Sure thing." Zim nodded his head and closed the hatch. Take off was as smooth as anyone could expect for a Vort ship. The cruiser flew like a dream, and a 3 day trip was shortened to 2.

Upon entering the Irken solar system, Zim transmitted his arrival codes. "Guess I have to put that uniform back on." He walked into the back and got the shock of his life. There in the back room, sitting and eating the doughnut supply, were Jenni, Larkz, and Wes.

"Hey Dad." Jenni smiled and tossed a doughnut, "think fast… aww what a waste of a doughnut." She complained when he caught it then squished it between his fingers; the jelly oozed out the sides.

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE!?" he demanded.

"You think we've been waiting 16 years to see this planet and a civil war will keep us away?" Larkz laughed and dodged to the side of the doughnut his father threw at him.

"Seriously Dad, you can't do something this fun without us. That's practically child neglect!" Jenni and Larkz gasped simultaneously in false horror.

Zim's hands pulled down on his face, in an 'I give up' kind of way. "16 earth years and you two are still the same troublemakers you were when you were smeets! And You!" he said pointing one of his two long fingers at Wes; Wes immediately stopped laughing, "do you're parent's even know you're here?"

Right on cue, Dib's frantic voice came over the speaker, "ZIM PLEASE TELL ME THOSE KIDS ARE WITH YOU! WE'VE LOOKED EVERYWHERE!" Zim sighed and went to the communications panel.

"…yeah they're here… the little stowaways."

Dib's sigh of relief was clearly audible. "So what are you going to do? Come back?"

"Can't… I already sent my arrival code, so they'll be expecting me in a few minutes now, and if I don't show up they might start to panic." He ran his hands forward and back, scratching the top of his head, wracking his brain to figure out what to do with them.

"We could come pick them up?"

"That won't work. If everything Lard Nar said is true, the planet will be on lockdown. Nothing that's **not** Irken can enter and nothing that **is** Irken can leave."

Jenni, Larkz, and Wes stood at the control room entrance anxiously waiting to hear their fates.

At long last Zim sighed, "They'll just have to come with me. I'll find someone to watch them while I deal with everything that's going on." He rolled his eyes at the celebration going on behind him. "Of course that means they'll have to be on their **Best Behavior.**" The three immediately agreed, though somehow Zim got the feeling that keeping them in line wouldn't really be that easy. Never the less it was too late to turn back.

"Fasten your seatbelts kids. We are now arriving at Planet Irk."


	3. The Full Situation

**Chapter 3 – The Full Situation**

"Welcome back Zim. We… missed you." Red's smile was clearly faked, as one of his antenna twitched slightly with the effort of lying. The two of them exchanged an awkward hand shake (it was awkward because neither of them had thumbs). "We've got a lot to talk about, now that you're here. First thing to do is to fill you in on the situation and then we'll get a press conference scheduled, and.."

Purple floated up next to Red cutting him off, "That's great Red but first," he smiled excitedly at Zim, "Are those little hybrids with you?" Red rolled his eyes. Purple had been talking about playing with the smeets again for almost a month now. They would be about one and a half Irk years old, the age for their first space flight test, which is why Red assumed that Zim had brought them now instead of earlier. Either way he hoped that once Purple was sufficiently distracted, they could get down to business.

Zim jerked his head back at the cruiser. "They're grabbing their stuff. Those three refused to wear anything other than their earth clothing on this trip so there's a lot."

"Three?" Red and Purple looked towards the Vort cruiser, as two taller Irkens and one strange looking Vortian came down the ramp pushing hover cart. "Who are they?" Purple asked in his high pitched voice. "Is that a Vortian?" Red wondered.

The teens came up beside Zim, Larkz and Wes on his left and Jenni to his right. Jenni found herself fascinated by the six foot tall aliens in front of her. That really was what they looked like! Her Dad wasn't just some mutated freak! _That's so cool! _

"I guess they have grown a lot since you last saw them," Zim said shrugging. He put his hands on the heads of his two kids, "Larkz, Jenni, this is Red and Purple, the former Almighty Tallest." He said looking between the twins. "Red and Purple, these are those smeets from before, Larkz and Jenni, and that one there is a friend of theirs. The son of one of my human friends and a Vortian. His name's Wes."

"How…" Stunned, Red stared between the two of them. "It's only been a year and a half… how are they…"

"They're tall!" Purple blurted out. Larkz and Jenni exchanged a confused look.

"My Tal… I mean Red and Purple; it's only been a year on Irk but on Earth nearly 16 years has passed, which is a long time to Humans," Zim explained.

Red looked to still be in shock as a communicator folded out from his PAK. "Uhh yeah... send Blert up here." His crimson eyes looked back and forth between the two supposedly full grown, 1 year old, smeets, and 1 Vortian with hair and no horns. The cool wind blowing over the top of the building, pulling on his long red tunic woke him from the surprise. "Right well we should head in. We'll go to the conference room; Tallest Skoodge is hopefully waiting there" He grabbed Purple by the back of his shirt and dragged him to the building while the others followed.

XXX

"DO YOU HAVE BRAIN WORMS OR SOMETHING!? WHY WOULD YOU NOT TELL ME ABOUT THIS!?"

Co-Tallest Skoodge cowered under the gaze of his friend and taller Tallest. His large pink eyes growing moist with tears he didn't want to let fall. "I… I thought I could take care of it…" He said as Zim turned away to pace the room. "You said you wanted to live on earth and you were counting on me to not let everyone notice you're absence…so… I…" his voice failed him.

Zim looked about to yell again but stopped when he saw his friend start crying. He sighed heavily and clasped his hands behind his back; he continued floating back and forth around the conference room.

Jenni groaned and rested her head on her arms, leaning on the table, completely bored. Her brother and Wes sat on the other side of the table mirroring her perfectly. Red and Purple had just finished explaining everything that had occurred on Irk since their birth… and 16 years is a long story.

Fifty days after their family had returned home, a string of murders had occurred. The Irken police knew the culprit was a Dangerous Defective named Alexa, though many knew her as the Black Widow. Even though they knew it was her, they failed to catch her at every turn. Center City was put under lockdown for a week and every inch of the city was searched, but still no sign of her; Red and Purple believed that someone was hiding her, but since Skoodge was certain no one would help her, the Lockdown was removed.

The murders stopped for a while. Everyone was beginning to think she was dead, until a smeet was attacked in the Undergrounds. Red, Purple, and Skoodge didn't find out until much later that the attacked smeet was Zak, and by then it was too late. The city was locked down again, and this time the search included the Training School. Soldiers were recalled from other planets both to man the borders of the city and to help with the search. There was still no sign of her.

While the searches commenced, the smeets hatched just after Tak's "alterations" to the factory were being evaluated. The majority of them were unharmed. There were a few however, who had permanent damage to their bodies. The night before the first scheduled operation attempt to repair one of these smeets, the entire group disappeared. The guards by the smeet's doors were all found dead, their throats slit and PAKs stabbed through. It was around this time that Red first suggested they alert Zim, but Skoodge would not allow it. Five years had passed on Earth.

It wasn't long before the citizens grew anxious to hear from their Tallest what was being done about the situation. Skoodge had done his best to calm their fears but riots began to flare up over the city. While the soldiers struggled to contain the damage, a terror threat was delivered from a group that calls themselves The Broken Ones. They claimed responsibility for stirring the riots and for hiding the Dangerous Defective Alexa.

A council was called. All high ranking Tallers, military personal, and everyone involved with Zim's takeover a (Irken) year ago were present at the time. The discussion was going smoothly. Ideas for dealing with The Broken Ones were being presented, discussed, and analyzed. Everything was normal until one Taller questioned if the title of "Broken" meant that these were ones labeled as Defective.

Red plugged his PAK into a screen to show them what happened that day.

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_"You're joking right?" Seeing through the eyes of the former Tallest, the recording focused on an Irken of average height with bright yellow eyes. "Defectives are… dumb. They wouldn't be able to organize something like this."_

_The Irken shook his head, "I'm sorry sir but that's where you're wrong. Defective is a label for any Irken that cannot work to the fullest extent due to either a mistake in their programing, or physical damage acquired to their bodies."_

_"He's right. Take me for example." The recording turned to look at a tall male soldier, with dark skin and ice blue eyes. "I sustained damage to my nerve receptors during the Vort Complications. I can't feel pain but other than that I'm completely capable."_

_A part of the screen flickered when Red's eye twitched. "Alright fine. So let's pretend they are a group of Defectives. What would you suggest we do?"_

_An Irken in the back shouted out, waiving his hand over the crowd. "They should all be rounded up for questioning. Especially after that group of defective smeets escaped."_

_"Defective smeets?" that question came from Skoodge, but Red didn't look over at him, instead eyeing the Medic that spoke._

_"That's right my Tallest. A group of them were set for attempted repairs but they somehow managed to flee the smeet undergrounds before the repairs began. I told everyone we should have just deactivated them but no one listened. And now this is the mess we have."_

_Red nodded hearing this, "Smeets can't escape on their own. Our Tallest here is proof of that." In the corner of the screen Skoodge could be seen slouching in his chair. "Check all records for every Defective and find their location, whether this or Any planet."_

_"YOU CAN'T!"_

_The screen turned to look at a young Irken child. His eyes were a dark purple with grey specks in them, and he wore a matching dark colored shirt. From how the child was standing on the floor Red could easily see the PAK on the child's back; the three spots were a bright orange._

_"And why not Zak?" Red asked._

_"You can't just single out Defectives like that. You already alienate them just by listing them under that title. Just think about how they'd feel if you started corralling them like animals." The smeet's voice was hard and determined._

_The Yellow-eyed Irken smiled knowingly, "Zak I know you want to protect them, but it's the only lead we've got. If you want, we can arrange for you to be scanned first before things potentially get messy."_

_"That's not what I meant! Don't you even care that they're Irkens to?"_

_"Why would we?" Purple piped up. The screen turned to look at him. He was slouching with his chin resting on the table. "We're tall and they're useless defectives. We've already got the most annoying one ever made to deal with for the rest of our lives, why would we want to worry about more than that?"_

_"Well I'll agree on that," Red said, "what about you Tallest Skoodge?"_

_"I suppose so."_

_"NO!" a loud click sounded from the speakers. The screen froze as Red remained completely still. From the gun on the back of his head._

_"ZAK! What are you doing!?" Skoodge yelled_

_"I thought I could change your minds. But none of you will ever understand. Until the day you see us as equals to yourselves, we will never stop hunting you." _

_Red's eyes glanced around the room. All Tallers that were not soldiers had ducked down in fear, while many soldiers rested their hands on the hilt of their weapons. Purple could be seen, in the corner of his eye, with his clenched fists and muscles tensed to spring from his chair at a moment's notice. _

_Red's voice was filled with a forced calm, "You said 'we' Zak. Are you saying you're part of the Broken Ones?"_

_It was terrifying to hear such a condescending laugh come from the small child, "Even better. I'm their leader."_

_"What is it you're after!?" Purple was barely visible on screen, gripping his chair tightly. _

_"You idiots really have no idea. I gave you one chance to say something to show that you understand, but even now you don't get it."_

_"Then explain it to us…"Red stood slowly from his chair to face Zak._

_"DON'T MOVE!" Red froze. He could just barely see the smeet. The child's PAK legs were fully extended, lifting him off the floor. "You fools mess up and cause damage to us. Then you deactivate us like we never existed!"_

_"Zak I know it's not right its…"_

_"SHUT UP! YOU'RE NO BETTER! Just because you're tall, they never labeled you! No more… You Taller's don't get to act all high and mighty anymore."_

_Before Zak could pull the trigger, Purple dove from his chair and slammed into the smeet's PAK legs, Red yelled for the guards and everything in the video was thrown into chaos.  
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"Even with the building surrounded, he somehow managed to escape." Red's antennae were dipped low, feeling that natural Irken instinct of not wanting to fail the Tallest, for the first time concerning Zim.

Around this point Blert, the same ice-blue-eyed soldier from the video, came in with a shorter female soldier. The two stood just behind the former Tallests, adding information when asked, but otherwise remaining silent. Blert looked completely used to this but the short girl seemed completely out of her comfort zone.

"What are you looking at?" Jenni whispered to Larkz. He kept glancing over his shoulder nervously.

His eyes flicked back to his sister before staring off at their Dad and the others, "nothing," he said innocently. Jenni might have pointed out that she knew it wasn't nothing, but Red had started talking again and she was curious what happened next.

"From there," Former Tallest Red said with a sigh, "things just went downhill. We were forced to recall all off planet soldiers to keep control on the city and keep the citizens safe."

"Right," Purple chimed in, "we thought things were calming down, but technicians were having trouble repairing everything that was broken in the riots so we called all of them back also."

"You just abandoned all of the rebuilding projects?" Zim had his hands on his face looking appalled. "Why?"

Red and Purple exchanged a look. "Look Zim." Red sighed, "I know you wanted to help those evolutionary failures," he ignored the glare Zim shot at him, "but the fact remains, that our planet and our species come first." Red leaned back in his hair, his fingers flexing in the air, "we didn't really have much choice."

"And how many Irkens are on planet now?"

"Uhh… Well… it's hard to say."

"Red…"

"Alright fine… 24 billion."

"WHAT!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME! THAT HAS TO BE EVERY IRKEN IN EXISTANCE!"

"Well we did say we called back everybody," Purple pointed out; he was half distracted by a snack tray that one of the service drones was holding for him.

"Yeah but I didn't know you literally meant EVERY BODY!"

Skoodge stood suddenly, slamming his hands on the table. "Well if you've got so many better ideas why not say them!"

Jenni and Larkz snickered as their Dad's expression froze. Tallers Red and Purple ordered some drinks from a nearby service drone, as if they realized how long he might be frozen like that, which made the twins laugh even harder.

Wes groaned. The three leaned in and spoke in harsh whispers, "I'm bored."

"Me to." Larkz agreed.

Jenni smiled, "Me three. Go ask dad if we can leave."

"What? Why me?"

"Your idea."

"Was not! Wes said it."

"Don't look at me. He's not My Dad."

Larkz groaned and stood from his seat. All eyes went to him, other than his Dad's, as he was still frozen. "Hey Dad? Mind if we go have a look around?" … "Dad?" … "Do you copy Invader Zim!"

Zim's back snapped straight and his arm rose automatically into a salute. "Invader Zim repor… Damit Larkz why do you do that to me?"

"You spaced out."

"Doesn't mean you should pick up your mother's habit, now what do you want?"

"Can we look around the city?"

"We're kind of in the middle of a planetary lockdown…"

"Actually sir," the female soldier piped up, "what we had originally come to tell you was that we had enough soldiers to station in and around the city so that we could remove the lockdown, for the city anyway." Blert smashed his palm to his face then elbowed the girl. She squeaked, realizing her mistake and bowed quickly, "That's our report, My Tallest." Purple snickered into his hand, and Zim eyed the girl.

Turning to his son he said, "Fine, she'll show you around." The soldier squeaked again in surprise.

"Cool." Jenni stood from her chair and walked over to the girl. "I'm Jenni, nice to meet you."

At 4'1", the girl Irken was over a foot shorter than Jenni. Her purple eyes were a few shades darker than Taller Purple's, and only appeared brighter with the yellow stripes on her purple uniform. Her skin was a very bright green, compared with Larkz's. She stood nervously staring at the offered hand before taking it. "I am Soldier Miff, Taller Jenni."

"Just Jenni is fine."

Miff hesitated, glancing black at Blert, who was conveniently looking in the opposite direction. "Umm, alright, Jenni."

"And I'm Larkz!"

Jenni jumped as she hadn't even noticed her brother coming up behind her so quickly. His arm stuck out around her taking Miff's and shaking it. Miff smiled and greeted him. Wes joined them a moment later. The three of them had so many questions about the planet, but Zim shooed them out of the room.

"So," Miff asked, "What would you like to see first?"


End file.
